What are your thoughts on Michelle Wie playing?

I had the pleasure of playing with her yesterday. She is definitely a wonderful player. Pretty long for her age and her being a woman. She has beautiful distance control with her irons and is a wonderful player but I think she might struggle a little here if it doesn't rain. If it doesn't rain some of these greens are really difficult to hit for us and for her will be tougher. Looks like we might get a little rain unfortunately so see what happens.

Can you elaborate why she might struggle?

I think if she plays well and has a good start and gains some momentum she may have a good chance of making the cut. But if she doesn't I feel her ball flight with the altitude and then coming into the greens might be too low. If she had a higher ball flight she would be hitting it 15 or 20 yards longer. Yesterday she hit a really nice drive on the 14th, got it higher and hit it long there. Most of here tee shots were low. Of course you get some roll but the important thing up here is to get it in the air so it stays in the air as much as possible. Coming in with a four, five or six iron and not being able to hit it as high as we do..If we are hitting eight irons high and struggling to hit some of these greens, imagine what would happen to a seven iron coming in lower.

If she was your which course would you take her to make the cut?

Not sure, depends on the weather. If the greens are soft she has a better chance. Hamburg, where we played Deutsche Bank. Even with a four or five iron you can hold the greens. That kind of course.

Anywhere in the UK?

She could be good on a links course with her ball flight. Keep the ball down and get some roll, make the courses shorter for her. Links courses could be good for her to make the cut but we don't play many links courses. If she plays well she could probably make the cut in most of the courses but she has to play really well.

Will you adopt a different game plan in defending your title?

No. I know the way I like to play this course. It depends how you are feeling as I might hit driver on six if I feel good one day although I don't think I did last year but I will be playing pretty similar to last year. Driver on five, going for the green on seven, going for the par fives. Hopefully I can hit a lot of greens as I did last year, give myself a lot of birdie opportunities and roll the potato there.

There seems to be a split between those who think Michelle is good for the tournament and others who think she is taking away a spot?

I understand that. I think anything that helps the game of golf is good. Anything, No matter what. It might not help the guy she has taken a spot from this week but it might help him in the future. If she, and I mean women, earn the right to play on the Tour, I have already said it, when she was playing or Annika was playing Colonial or any other women play men's event, I don't see them as a female player, I see them as golfers and that is the way I look at it.

She said yesterday she would like to one day play the Ryder Cup - would you like to see that?

I wouldn't mind, playing against her on a tough course I would take my chances.

She would just be another golfer if she was on the American Ryder Cup team?

Sure, but what are the chances of that. To finish on the top ten on the points how many top tens have you got to get. And win more than once.

You say no problem if she earns the right to play - but she hasn't done anything?

She is working on it/ She has justv started. She is playing a couple of events here and there and playing the LPGA. You have to realise she is 16, she is still at school. We were talking yesterday and I was saying I took last week off and said 'How about you?' She said school, studying. You have to realise that. It will come, slowly and it is only going to get better. If it helps the game of golf, good.

What was your game like at 16?

I was okay. I won the British Boys and some big events in Spain and around Europe and a couple in America.

Last year you had Luke Donald staying with you?

No-one this year, Just my Mum. I have a couple of friends who live below me from Spain. I spoke to Luke and he was playing last week and is playing next week and he wanted to rest and be fresh for the Ryder Cup. I will miss him as he is a good friend of mine as we had some good stories from last year.

Will you play foursome and fourball with Luke at the Ryder Cup?

I am not so sure about fourball. I think we will play foursomes. That is what we did two years ago. On the other hand, there is Lee too who I played well with in both fourballs and foursomes. Once we call get there and talk to Woosie and try to figure out what the best pairings will be but I see myself playing with Luke, Lee or one of the Swedes.

There was an article in an American golf magazine saying that no woman would ever win a tour event - do you agree with that?

Never say never but I think there is a big chance it might not happen. The way I see it is the normal courses we play, when they play, it is like a US Open course that we play. On a US Open course, you play really well and shoot five under. You don't shoot 14, or 18 or 20. For a woman to, unless something unbelievable comes around, to shoot that kind of score on our courses where even our short courses are long for them, it is pretty difficult. But never say never. Anything can happen.

Any comment of the Thomas Bjorn affair?

I see Thomas' point. We all love playing Ryder Cups and all want to be on that team. He felt he gave himself a shot of being on that team and unfortunately didn't get picked. You can only pick two and I told Woosie, no matter what you do, someone will be unhappy as you cannot pick everybody. Someone will feel they should be on that team and they are not. There is no right or wrong.

It is more the way it was handled on Sunday?

I didn't see it on Sunday but read a couple of things and Carlos told me a couple of things. It is Thomas. Sometimes he is a little like me a get s little ahead of himself. I am sure he didn't mean any bad by what he said but sometimes things don't come out right. He will be okay.

Had you spoken to Woosie in the previous six months?

We talked a couple of times on the phone over the last four weeks. Couple of phone calls and three or four text messages.

If you were a betting man, would you put any money on Michelle Wie making the cut?

What are the odds? 2-1? If I had to put my life on it, probably not, if 10 quid then I would.

Can I ask about another woman - is there any truth in the rumour that you are seeing Greg Norman's daughter?

You'll see.